My Family

I talked about it in an earlier post about how much I love my family. So to elaborate on it, I feel it appropriate to write a little something for those I love the most. This will be primarily family and even some of my good friends.

No I'm not dying, nor do I expect any of those mentioned to die any time in the foreseeable. I've never been that great with earthly gifts (if I even remember to get one) but I do see myself as one who is good with words.

First of all: My great father. I can expect him to make a witty comment either criticizing some spelling or grammatical error I've made while simultaneous thanking me for the nice post. Never too sappy, but also not too cutting. Always right... And humorous. He is in fact an awesome dad. My fondest of memories include watching the Lion King countless times, riding in a seat on the back of his bike going around Lake Elizabeth, going to the train tracks and waiting to see a train go by, and so much more. He provided me with everything I needed and most of the things I wanted. He used good discretion as looking back, I wanted a lot of retarded stuff. He is also always witty and original in his humor. People have told him that he must get his humor from me. They are sadly mistaken and honestly quite stupid as it's obvious I get my humor from him. 'The tail doesn't wag the dog' as he would say.

My loving mother. People always say that a man will marry someone like his mom. Not to be all sappy or anything, but if I marry someone like my mom, I'm set for life. This woman has taken care of not only my dad (an obstacle in itself) but managed to raise six awesome kids as well. That means giving birth, feeding, dressing, helping with homework, taking them to appointments, dealing with our fallacies and still loving us after all of that crap. I've told her before that I feel like the mom of my apartment since hardly anyone cleans up after themselves and I seem to have taken on her role in my apartment. Scary right? Anyway, my mom has done more than I ever could, can, will, and I'll never be able to give adequate thanks.

My second mother, a.k.a. my sister Sarah. She was almost 16 when I was born so I don't have that many memories of her since she left for college when I was 3 or so. The funniest story though was one I don't remember but she told me about. My mom, Sarah and I went to the mall when I was a newborn and I was in a stroller. While in the mall, my mom asked Sarah to stay with me while she ran into a store really quick. During that time people apparently gave her nasty looks, thinking she was a teenage mom.
In later years, I remember sleeping over at her house with her husband Joel (also a really cool guy, but this is a family post, sorry) and their two cats. Unfortunately I realized the next morning that I was allergic to cats as my eyes were itchy and my nose was quite runny. One last story was just before Sarah got married. She and my mom were cutting invitations or something on one of those big paper cutters where you bring  down the blade perpendicular to the board (sorry I don't know the proper vernacular). During one of her swings of the blade, she cut the edge of her finger. In attempts to cheer her up, I went upstairs, took off all my clothes (except my whitey tighteys... I was like 6 or so) and went back downstairs running around flailing my arms. It worked. Sarah's been like my mom in the disciplinary department, and a sister in the 'always making fun of me' department.

My sister Allison. She also left for college before I reached my 'remember things' years. But more memorably, she lived with my parents and I with her husband and baby girl. That was fun in itself as I could play video games with her husband Dave and play silly little games with her daughter. Since Becca had already left for college, it was like I had siblings again and prolonged the time till I had to be alone with just my parents. The most pronounced memory is when her daughter was taking a nap and everyone else was out of the house. We were chatting in the kitchen when we heard a buzzing by the windows and realized it was a bee. We freaked out cause we're both sissies and tried a whole number of things to get it out. Eventually we plugged in the hose vacuum (the ones that go into the wall) and hesitantly made out way over to it with the hose and finally destroyed it. High fives were in order as we slayed that mighty beast.

My brother Jeff. When I was a baby, apparently Jeff played with me a lot. In my middle years (the ones I actually remember), not so much. But in my later teen years, we bonded much over excited yells at Call of Duty as we would trade off turns playing. He's now engaged to Jess, a girl who gets as excited as he at video games and is arguably as good as any of us at video games (except Call of Duty of course). She's pretty awesome as well, but again, this is a direct family only post. My fondest of memories of Jeff was when he was taking me to some summer activity. We went outside and were about to get in his Camero (or as I pronounced it Cuh meh woah) when he asked 'Wanna take the top off?' His Camero had a T-Top and when those bad boys were off... Dang did I feel cool riding in his car. Sure enough, we took em off and we drove to whatever activity I had in style.

My sister Laura. Laura likes hugs... A lot. Maybe my parents didn't love her enough as a child, but pretty much whenever I'm with her, she'll hold her elbows by her body, forearms outstretched, wiggling her fingers. This implies a hug is wanted. Most of the time I give her one, because hugs are in fact nice. But I do it grudgingly... We'll often share phone calls where I say silly/stupid things and she laughs at how stupid I am. Our conversations are riddled with 'Sooooo... What's up?' and 'Ummmm yeaahhh' You could call it awkward. I call it sisterly bonding.

My shveester Becca. I say schveester because it is she (I'm quite confident of this) that I get my crazies from. (She's to blame Katie!) Crazies include our 'Louie Voice' and dancing around making as much noise as possible and just plain being cooky. Though not as hug dependent as Laura, she still enjoys a good embrace. The funniest memory of her I have is when our mom asked us to do the dishes. Stupidly, my mom stuck around in the kitchen and fell victim to what happened next. Our crazies started to build up and we started doing some type of African chant. I was beating on recently cleaned pots and pans while she danced around my mom making odd noises. My mom, most likely from being tired, thought this was hilarious to the point where she started crying she was laughing so hard. I must also give props to Becca for being my... Wingman? by giving me tips and ideas on how I should go about getting my first kiss. For those of you who don't know, all went well and my sincerest gratitude goes to Becca.

All in all, my family is just about the coolest out there. It seems like after my friends (as well as my sisters' friends) meet my family, they want to be an Ostler too. A tight, sarcastic bond is what keeps this family together, and I couldn't love it any more.